Central Sanctuary

Monday, December 17, 2012

This was preached at the 8am service yesterday. I thank my friend Rev. Paul Beisel for his words and perspective on the shooting, which framed mine.

Jesus Tells John

Luke 7:18-28

Third Sunday in
Advent, 2012 C

Zion Lutheran
Church

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon
Bakker

Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.The Holy Scripture for our consideration this
day is the Gospel reading from St. Luke.

Then the disciples of John reported
to him concerning all these things.And
John, calling two of his disciples to him,
sent them to Jesus, saying,
‘Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?’When the men had come to him, they said,
‘John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the Coming One, or do we
look for another?’’And that very hour
he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind
he gave sight.Jesus answered and said
to them, ‘Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to
them.And blessed is he who is not offended because of
me.’When the messengers of John had
departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go
out into the wilderness to see?A reed
shaken by the wind?But what did you go
out to see?A man clothed in soft
garments? Indeed those who are
gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts.But what did you go out to see?A prophet?Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold,
I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before
you.’For I say to you, among
those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but
he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’

Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is gifted at preaching.Now, that may sound odd to our ears, because
Jesus is much more than just a preacher, but in this Gospel that is exactly
what he does.‘Tell us,’ John the
Baptist’s disciples implored; ‘we were sent by John the Baptist!’ they
said.‘Are you the Coming One?Or do we look for another?’

It is
incredible, when you think about it.John the Baptist, born to Zechariah and Elizabeth when they were long
past the age of childbearing, was brought up in the knowledge that he was the
forerunner to the Messiah.He was not
the true Light, but he was to bear witness of that Light.He was not the Christ, but pointed to Jesus
and told those following, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world.’The same John the Baptist now
wonders if Jesus truly is this Messiah.Or should he look to someone else?

It was John
of whom the prophets spoke when they foretold a voice, crying in the
wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’John was the new Elijah, the new Isaiah, and the new Malachi, preaching
a baptism of repentance for the remission of sin.Many flocked to him for baptism.When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan to
fulfill all righteousness, John saw the Holy Spirit come down as a dove upon
Jesus; he heard the voice of God the Father, calling Jesus his beloved Son, in
whom he is well pleased.And still John
wondered, is Jesus truly the one whose sandals he was unworthy to untie?Or is there another?

It is mind
boggling.If anyone had reason to trust,
without question, whether Jesus was truly the coming one – the Savior of the
world – it was John.Yet here you see
him not simply harboring doubts about Jesus; he is deeply troubled.Troubled enough to send his disciples to
Jesus to ask whether he is the coming one, or should he look for another?

The first
part of this 7th chapter of Luke consists of Jesus performing some
of his most spectacular miracles.He
raised the son of the Roman Centurion, who believed that Jesus had the
authority to speak the command and the miracle would happen; and he raised the
son of the widow from Nain who was in the midst of a funeral procession as the
Lord approached that city.In both
cases, Jesus spoke the command, and the dead were raised.With these miracles, news about Jesus was
travelling quickly, and this was the report given to John the Baptist.

You would
expect that someone like John, who was predisposed by his life’s circumstances
to believe that Jesus was the Christ, would believe it.But his new circumstances made it
difficult.John the Baptist at this
point in his life was in prison, held there by King Herod at the wish of his
wife.John’s preaching of repentance
knew no bounds, and when Herod committed adultery by taking his brother’s wife
as his own, John condemned it and proclaimed repentance, even for the royal
family.King Herod knew he had done
wrong, and didn’t hold it against John, but his wife was livid.John had to be imprisoned, and once he was
imprisoned, he had to die.Scripture
shows that she eventually got her way.

So John was
not sitting well.The one who had lived
on locusts and wild honey, who clad himself in camels’ hair, who proclaimed the
coming Christ in the wilderness, had real concerns.His days were numbered, and his situation had
changed.No more preaching, no more
baptizing, no more pointing out Jesus to others; he was sitting in a prison
while the world went on without him.He
had time to think, and the second thoughts, the questions, and the doubts
came.

Was all of
this really going the way it was supposed to go?How could his being in prison possibly
further the proclamation of the Messiah that he was – he had believed – born to
do?Had he been wrong about Jesus, all
along?

Those are
tough questions.Tough questions
naturally arise when things don’t go according to plan, when people have to try
to put things together and try to make sense of what has happened.This whole country and many around the world
are struggling with the same sense of bewilderment in the aftermath of the
shootings that took place in Connecticut
on Friday.The fact that most of the
victims were defenseless children only intensifies the injustice and horror.People everywhere mourn with the families of
all of those children and of their fallen teachers and school staff as well.One of those children was a member of Christ
The King Lutheran Church, LCMS, of Newtown.Her family had recently joined the
congregation and she had been involved in the Sunday School.

At such
times, people learn the news and go through a range of responses.Anger, sorrow, grief, helplessness,
confusion…even anger at God.No doubt,
there will be those who see this event as just one more reason to disavow
Christianity or doubt God’s love.They
will point to this as a sure sign that your faith is misplaced, that the God
who watched this happen and did not stop it cannot possibly be as good as you
say he is.These, too, are certainly
tough questions, and like John, those who find themselves heartbroken,
confused, or even angry at God will not find peace on their own.

Man’s
explorations of God’s will in search of an explanation – a justification for
why something took place – usually end up in the realm of speculation, and
often go far beyond the boundaries of Holy Scripture.Much of the time this happens because there
are things about God that you and I like to believe, and at the same time,
there are things about God that terrify you and me.When he forgives sin, gives life, and
promises salvation, he is a good God working for those he loves; but when there
is a violent killing, when there is a war, or when there is an earthquake, and
lives are lost, then God is barely involved.Theologians have tried to soften God’s tricky edges by making
distinctions between the active will of God and the passive will of God.The problem is that when you take away those
words, ‘active’ and ‘passive’, you are still talking about the will of God.

I don’t
tell you this to alarm you or shake your faith; but rather to clear away every
excuse for God that immediately comes to mind when bad things happen, when
things don’t go according to plan.If
God is there and with you for all of the good things, when you are at your
best, then he is most certainly also there and with you for all of the bad
things, when you are at your worst, when the world itself appears to be turned
upside down by evil.God is not the
author of death or wickedness; he doesn’t even take pleasure in the death of
evil or wicked people.His desire is
that sinners would turn from their evil way and live.But apart from a solid word from God
otherwise pertaining to any situation or circumstances, He gives no further
explanation.

The Lord
does not do it to frustrate you or confuse you, but to give you no where else
to turn for help but back to him.In
every trouble, in every sorrow, in every loss, God alone is your refuge and
your strength.Your health, your wealth,
your friends, and even your family all fall short in the end.God is your only help in the face of every
need.This is what Martin Luther called
the theology of the cross – the distinctly Lutheran perspective that God does
not reveal himself primarily to you in glory, but in humility, in weakness, and
in suffering.He did not come as a
vengeful king to lead his people out of Roman occupation and conquer the world;
he came as a little baby to sacrifice himself for the life of the world.

When awful
things happen in this world, you and I are just as perplexed as John the
Baptist was when injustice was being visited upon him.In the midst of all the wickedness of the
world, your question to Jesus could very well be the same as John’s, ‘are you
the coming one, or do we look for another?’And Jesus’ answer is far from simple, but it is the answer John needed
and it is the answer you need.

‘The blind
see.The lame walk.The lepers are cleansed.The deaf hear.The dead are raised.’And last, but certainly not least, ‘the poor have
the Gospel preached to them.’There is
no miracle from Jesus to stave off John’s execution and there is no clever turn
of phrase to make what happened in Connecticut okay, but in Jesus’ preaching,
John is sprung from the prison of unbelief, and you receive the peace that only
comes from faith.

Jesus
speaks of miraculous cures and resurrections, but the most important thing is
that the poor have the Gospel preached to them.Those other miracles were for others, but for you, John the Baptist, and
for you, Zion Lutheran Church,
you must instead be content that in Christ your sins are forgiven.You must take refuge in the promise of
everlasting life in heaven.This is what
it means to have the Gospel preached to you.Faith does not feed on the super-intelligent explanations of theologians
or on the miraculous; faith feeds on Jesus and Jesus alone, and his word, and
his flesh and blood, are your comfort and your food to help you in every time
and every need.

To
Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The peace
of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus, our Lord, amen.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Grace to
you and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen.The Holy Scripture for our consideration this
day is the Gospel lesson from St. Matthew.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and
when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and
taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall
be comforted. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and
persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you.’

Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, not many people pride themselves on
forgetfulness.You know this firsthand.When someone breaks a promise because they
forgot about it, you think less of them.When someone says they’ll be there, but then doesn’t show up because
they forgot to check their calendar, you wonder about their priorities.When someone says that they will do their
part for a project, but then forgets to fulfill their task, you wonder if they
even care.And when you forget
something, it is even worse; you feel embarrassed and ashamed because you know
what it’s like for those you’ve let down.

There are
some times, however, when you wish you could just forget that something
happened, or you pray that others could just forget about something that
happened.Maybe you want others to forget
about something you said, or something you did.A harsh word to a loved one spoken in a moment without thinking is hard
to forget, and takes time to heal.Even
more so with a careless action; the things you do and the things done to you do
not always disappear from reality or from your memories.Grudges come naturally, but nobody, it seems,
can choose what to forget.

There are a
lot of things I would like to forget, even from this past week.I would love to forget the 15 messages on my
answering machine this week reminding me to vote on Tuesday.I’m sure all the candidates in the coming
election want you to forget all the negative things about them and only
remember the bad things about their opponents.I would like to forget that a hurricane wreaked havoc on the east coast
this week, knocking out the power for millions just as the weather is turning
cold and disrupting and taking lives.I
would most like to forget that a 24 year old mother was robbed of her life this
week, barely 5 miles from my home.I’m
know I’m not alone in that wish.And I selfishly
wish I could make others forget that the man arrested and charged in her death
claims to be a Christian pastor, but I can’t make people forget.Even though I know that most people will see
through a murderer’s hypocrisy, there are others who will never forget that a
man who served as a pastor did such a thing.When you want to forget something, you can’t make that happen; but when
you don’t want to forget something…it can disappear before you even miss it.

Today Zion is commemorating All
Saints’ Day, a day when people face some of the hardest memories of all.It is the day when the church remembers all
the faithful who have been taken to heaven by God to everlasting life.Not strangers, but friends, family, believers
of all times and places.People you
know, people you love, people you miss.You don’t want to forget them, and you shouldn’t, but there are times
when you could do without the sadness and grief that accompanies those
memories. Yet your grief is not
hopeless.St. John in the reading from
Revelation gave you an unforgettable glimpse of heaven and all those people as
they are today, white robed and waving their palms with Jesus.Through John, God gave this revelation of
Jesus Christ and your future to strengthen your resolve and encourage you in
your faith.For now you see others
there, singing the Lamb’s praises and rejoicing in his salvation, but one day,
by his grace, God will also bring you there, and he will wipe away all of your
tears, and you, too, will wave your palms, rejoicing.The Lord tells you this so that you do not
forget whose you are, and where you are going.

Now, in the
Gospel, Jesus begins one of the most unforgettable sermons in all of history.These are his Beatitudes, which introduce the Sermon on the Mount.A beatitude is a blessing, and Jesus speaks
of those who are blessed, and the blessing they are to receive.They are beautiful promises.The poor in spirit receive the kingdom of
heaven; those who mourn shall be comforted; the meek shall inherit the earth;
the hungry and thirsty shall be filled; the merciful shall obtain mercy; the
pure in heart shall see God; and the peacemakers will be called sons of
God.To those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake belongs the kingdom of heaven.These are wonderful, unforgettable promises
from your Lord, especially when you consider what the Lord in Revelation showed
to John.

After all,
who wouldn’t want comfort from God?Or
mercy?Or that kingdom of heaven?But then that nagging memory kicks in, and
starts asking some hard questions.Not
about the promises, but rather about you.Who does these wonderful things that go together with God’s promises?And not just in name only; who truly fulfills
them?Who is meek?Who is absolutely pure in heart?Not you, not me.Not perfectly.You want to see yourself as that person every
time, living up to Jesus’ words so that you can rejoice in the knowledge that those
promises are for you…but your memory just won’t let you.And it isn’t because your memory is failing…the
problem is that you also remember other things; things that don’t fit with
Jesus’ description.Your sins, and your
sinful nature.These things, along with
the devil and this fallen world, always seek to corrupt you and turn you away
from the Lord.

Don’t
listen to such temptations and don’t lose hope.The words from Jesus today are not conditions by which people who follow
a strict behavioral pattern earn each and every blessing from God; that would
be impossible.You may think for a
microsecond that other people are capable of such virtuous living, but then you
remember.You know better.All have sinned; all fall short of the glory
of God.Jesus speaks one way for most of
these beatitudes, ‘Blessed are they who are this…and blessed are those who are
that…,’ but then he changes his tone.No
longer is it ‘they’ and ‘them’ who are persecuted and reviled, but you.Blessed are you when you are persecuted; when
you are reviled.Blessed are you when
they say all kinds of evil against you falsely for Jesus’ sake.Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

It is easy
to forget that this promise at the end of the beatitudes is the key to
understanding the rest, especially when the world, the devil, and your own
sinful flesh persistently tempt you to turn your attention elsewhere.The first beatitudes do not fit you or me
because of sin, but they fit Jesus, and he does it for you.The last beatitude is not about you, but
about what is done to you by your sinful flesh, by the fallen world, and by the
devil himself; and it is finally about what the Lord has in store for you in
eternity.

Jesus tells
you this today, on All Saints’ Day, so that you don’t lose hope and don’t give
up believing.He tells you this so that
you don’t forget along the way why you’re here in the first place.He wanted your life to be eternal before you
even knew what that was, and he did the work and gave his Spirit to make it
happen.He used his means to justify
your end.In his baptism, he took your
sin and sinfulness upon himself so that in your baptism you would be washed
clean and given this faith.In his
preaching he gave you his Word that you might hear and learn it and know by it
that your sins are forgiven.In his last
supper he took bread and wine and instituted the Sacrament of his Body and
Blood to forgive you and strengthen you in your faith.On his cross he bore the curse of God’s wrath
for all sin, dying in your place, and rising again to establish your
everlasting life.

This, dear
friends, is why you are here.Your
memories may get in the way of the rejoicing and being glad that your Lord
encourages you to be doing in this life, and promises you for the next, but
don’t let those memories trump the most important memories of all; that God in
Christ came to save you, dying and rising to bring all believers of all times
and places to be with the Lamb reigning from the throne, forever.

To Christ alone
be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The peace
of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus, our Lord, amen.

Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.The Holy Scripture for our consideration
comes from 2nd Corinthians, the Epistle lesson.

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to
what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and
therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise
us up with Jesus, and will present us with
you. For all things are for
your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving
to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man
is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporary, but the
things which are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if our earthly house, this
tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.

Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, the appointed Epistle reading from 2nd
Corinthians could not be more appropriate for what is taking place today at Zion Lutheran
Church.St. Paul
speaks of faith, hope, and thanksgiving.He speaks of the struggle with the Old Adam, and the perseverance of the
New Man. He speaks of affliction and
suffering, and of the glory that is to come.He turns your focus away from the temporal, the things of this world, to
that which is eternal, in heaven.

Time
is a funny thing.It was just over four
years ago today that Zion
gathered to solemnly and tearfully bid farewell to the edifice that served this
congregation so faithfully for a century on Maple St.You sang hymns, prayed, and received the wonderful gifts of forgiveness,
life, and salvation from the Lord one last time in that building.The text for that Sunday, also most
appropriate for the Disposition of Zion’s former building, was from Matthew
7.Jesus spoke about two men who built
houses; a wise man who built on a rock and a foolish man who built on sand.Both homes were fine at first, but when the
rain descended, when the floods came, and when the wind beat against those homes,
only one was left standing – the house built on the rock.

Time
is a funny thing.When gathered again for
such an event as a dedication, as you are today, and having just sung, ‘Built
on the Rock, the Church shall stand,’ there is a vain temptation to wonder
about the same questions that rose four years ago.Was the Lord speaking of the old facility or
the new facility as being built on the rock?Was this marvelous sanctuary what the Lord had in mind when he spoke?Confidence is high that this building is
built the right way, upon the rock, and that it will stand the test of time and
the worst that the Michigan
weather is likely to throw at it.But
such vanity is not what the Lord meant with those words; in fact he had no
earthly building in mind.

Just
under four years ago – and time is a funny thing – it was three weeks after the
Disposition, and you gathered for a service of Dedication here for this
building.You dedicated what was built
to that point and reaffirmed not only your commitment to seeing this sanctuary
built, but more importantly, to the Christian faith you confess.It was like confirmation all over again.Do you acknowledge the gifts God gave you in
your Baptism?Do you renounce the devil,
his works, and his ways? Do you believe in God; the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit?Will you be faithful; is it
your intent to remain steadfast in this confession and church, and suffer all,
even death, rather than fall away from it?You said yes, you believe.You
said said, yes, by the grace of God.You
made the good confession before God and the world and were I to have you stand
up again today, you would surely repeat it, loud and clear.

It
would be the same, but really, it really is not the same anywhere.Things change over time.This is still Zion Lutheran church, it’s the
same pulpit, the same crucifix, the same pastors, the same font, the same
altar, but you have changed over these years.Some are among you in this church who were not here years ago.Some have moved into the area, some have come
back after being away for a while, and some have simply been born.At the same time, there are those who were
with us years ago who are not here today.Some have moved away, some have stopped coming, some are no longer able
to come, and some have been taken away from us by the Lord.

This
is life in Christ’s church; and the rising and falling of buildings has little
to do with it.Buildings are special
gifts from God, but like any other building, it is not the structure outside
that defines it, but the contents within.This is even more so in the church.Take note of the things that moved with you from Maple St to River Rd., and from the temporary
sanctuary to here.Many things, large
and small, made those moves.Things
you’re sitting in, looking at, hearing, and holding in your hands.All of them made the moves, but take them all
away, and you still have Christ’s Church in this place.This building is the location where you meet,
but the Church here is you, God’s people.God, who has given you the faith that makes you the body of Christ;
builds his church not with bricks and mortar but out of flesh and blood;
flesh and blood that believes, and as it believes, so also it speaks.

The
Corinthians heard this same preaching from Paul so that their focus would
remain on Christ and his promises, and not upon the things of this world.Zion
Lutheran Church
has the same spirit of faith, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will
raise you also with Jesus and bring you into his presence.This is why Zion exists, so that as grace extends to more
and more people it may increase true thanksgiving, all to the glory of
God.

You
have a building that stands here in Mt.
Pleasant not for its own
glory, and certainly not for your glory, but as a testimony of your faith in
Christ’s promises.You have given, you
have volunteered, you have shared ideas, and you have made the sacrifices to
come together as one people, as one congregation, to testify that there will be
a place here where the Gospel is purely preached, and where the Sacraments are
rightly administered.Your prayer is
that it will stand here and serve the body of Christ into the future.

This
is what telling the next generation is all about, and why you put forth so much
of yourselves not only toward the construction of this sanctuary, but toward
everything Zion
does.Such Godly purposes, however, are
just the place where the devil, the world, and your own flesh will work to
cause you to doubt and disbelieve.It is
easy to be tempted by such things when it comes to the future of the
church.Religious statistics raise
eyebrows – fewer children come to church than before; fewer are going into
Church work as a vocation; and if the statistics are surprising, then the
results of the religious surveys are downright alarming.They show that the religion of most teenagers
in America
is identical, regardless of where they live or which church they attend.Theologians call this religion, ‘Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism,’ and it is little more than belief in generic creator who
wants people to be happy, to be good to one another, and ultimately ensures
that good people go to heaven when they die.It is the same basic religion of those who claim to be ‘spiritual, but
not religious.’

The
temptation is there to sound the alarms and raise a panic, but this is nothing
new.It is the natural religion of
sinful man asserting itself against the work of Christ and his Church as it
will do until the Lord’s return.Interestingly
enough, the survey also probed into the religious influences of American
teenagers, and discovered that the single biggest factor was the religious
beliefs and practices of their parents.Teenagers will generally believe what their parents believe, and so
while the temptation is there to be panicked and alarmed, remember that the
most important thing you can do for the next generation is what was done for
you by your parents and by generation upon generation that came before
you.As you believe, so you speak, and
teach your children about God and humanity, about sin and death, about Christ
and his resurrection, and about the mercy and grace of God.Bring your children to the Divine Service
every chance you get so that all of you receive his gifts in the Means of
Grace, rejoice that your sins are forgiven, and look with hope to life
everlasting.

This
beautiful, reverent sanctuary was built by the generations who are here, and
some who have already gone before us into heaven, for you and the generations
that will follow.It is here to serve
you as you teach and raise up the next generations of Christ’s church.This sanctuary is a true gift from God for
this congregation, but it will not remain forever.In fact, it is just as temporary, albeit
hopefully on much longer timescale, as the last one.

This
is from the rest of Paul’s words, and it is the strongest medicine for
you.It stings going down, but it also
provides the true healing.Do not lose
heart.Just as your body grows weaker
and weaker as you age, so also this building will never be stronger or stand
firmer than it does today.Though your
outer self is wasting away, your inner self is being renewed day by day.Just as you live in your baptism day by day,
drowning the Old Man that the new man might daily arise to live before God in
righteousness and purity forever, so also the real Church – you – are being
renewed in your confession and hope for eternal life.For this light momentary affliction – death
from sin, both for your loved ones and for yourselves – is preparing you for an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Look
not to the things that are seen with your eyes, but to that which you cannot
see.That which you can see will pass
away – all of this will one day be gone – but the things that are unseen are
eternal.For you know, you believe, and
you confess that if the tent that is your earthly home – whether it is a
building or your very body – if that tent is destroyed, you still have a
building from God.A house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens, and while this sanctuary built with hands is
dedicated to God’s glory today, your true and everlasting home in heaven was
dedicated for you the day you were baptized in the Name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

To
Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The
peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Thanks to Pastor Greg Alms and his wonderful blog Incarnatus est, I recently read the best article I've seen all summer. Check it out here at Guernica magazine (I don't know anything else about this magazine or its contents - but found this particular article to be a fascinating read). Go read the article - it's worth it!

Our students helped assemble and ship the Spring Care packages for Christ on Campus - it was a fun night and a big thank you goes out to all who helped! Check out the HT Blog for pictures and more info!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Pastor Stuckwisch posted a very helpful quotation from Martin Luther on celibacy and marriage, and it may be of some encouragement to students.

You may find it here in full length, or read the first few paragraphs below:

Dear boy, do not be at all ashamed that you desire a girl, or that a girl longs for a boy, but see to it that it leads to marriage, and not to fornication. Then there is nothing disgraceful about it — as little as eating and drinking is a disgrace. Celibacy is supposed to be a virtue, but it is a veritable miracle of God, just as if a person did not eat or drink. It is beyond the capacity of a healthy body, not to mention the incapability of sinful and depraved human nature.
There are not many virgins to whom God granted a long life; rather hurriedly He whisked them out of this world, like Cecilia, Agnes, Lucia, Agatha, and others like them.
I know full well how noble that treasure is, but also how difficult it is to preserve for any length of time. If in every town, there were five boys and five girls, all twenty years of age, completely pure, with no experience of natural discharge, then I would be right in saying that the state of Christianity was better than in the days of the Apostles and martyrs.